Svaneti Open-air Museum, UNESCO World Heritage Site in Georgia, Georgian fortress houses

Over the centuries, a unique culture, colorful traditions and customs have been formed in the mountainous Zemo Svaneti, which have been preserved to our time. Part of this culture is Svan architecture – a housing complex of unusual shape – fortress houses, which include: a tower, a dwelling house attached to the tower with a large hall (machubi), outbuildings and a house surrounded by a stone fence.

The Svan Tower, the most remarkable structure of the complex, is defensive in nature. Taking into account the fact that the region was completely cut off from the outside world in winter, and there was no threat of attacks at that time, the towers are summer buildings, without a heating system, each of the towers is located to the mountain range in such a way that the main living space is protected from avalanches. The height of the towers is 20-25 meters. They mainly consisted of 4-5 floors. The lower floor is a blind room; the entrance to the tower is on the second floor, at a height of 5-7 meters. On the top floor of the tower there is a combat platform with loopholes. Svan towers are covered with a gable roof. The floors are connected by a portable wooden staircase located in the interior. Instead of windows, openings were found in the tower – narrow from the outside and wide from the inside. Observation holes are made in the tower from the side from where you can observe the roads leading to the village.

Such dwellings are common throughout the Zemo Svaneti region. Only in Mestia there are about 50 towers of the XI-XVIII centuries. In Ushguli, the highest locality in the region, the preserved fortress houses are the oldest type of Svan dwelling. Some of them were built in the IX-XI centuries.